Malema: legislature scuffle like Marikana

Warren Mabona

EFF leader Julius Malema warned on Thursday (3 July 2014) he will mobilise EFF’s supporters for a fight if its members continue to be kicked out of Gauteng legislature.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema yesterday fired another salvo at the ANC over the Marikana mine massacre, likening the incident to the scuffle that broke out in the Gauteng Legislature.

On Tuesday, police were called to remove the EFF members of the legislature after speaker Ntombi Mekgwe said they were dressed inappropriately. A scuffle broke out as the men and women in blue tried to eject EFF MPLs from the legislature.

Malema said Mekgwe called the tactical response team, which he referred to as the same unit that killed striking mineworkers in Marikana in 2012. He warned that chaos would flare up and lead to instability in South Africa’s economic hub if history repeated itself in the legislature. He said the EFF was taking the Gauteng and Eastern Cape legislatures to court for an urgent interdict to stop the legislatures from ordering its members out on the basis of their dress code.

“We will bring our members to the city and fight physically. The ANC is moving slowly to a dictatorship. It is only in a dictatorship where the police are called,” Malema said.

“The ANC must not disrupt this country in our name. We love this country but we must never be bossed around. To short-cut a democratic outcome is a call for a civil war.”

EFF’s Gauteng caucus whip Mandisa Mashego said police barred EFF members again from entering the legislature on Wednesday. She said the legislature would sit again on July 23.

Gauteng ANC spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said the EFF was participating in the legislature because the elections were free and fair.

“Everyone elected to the legislature was sworn in by the judge, including EFF members. They must prove themselves in real debates, not through drama and protest actions that have no meaning to ordinary people,” he said.